Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Notes on the Synthesis of Form

According to Wikipedia the origin of  Design Patterns lays in the Pattern Language ideas by the unorthodox architect and philosopher Christopher Alexander, but his earlier work also used to be widely read by computer scientists:
Alexander's Notes on the Synthesis of Form was required reading for researchers in computer science throughout the 1960s. It had an influence[8] in the 1960s and 1970s on programming language design, modular programming, object-oriented programming, software engineering and other design methodologies. Alexander's mathematical concepts and orientation were similar to Edsger Dijkstra's influential A Discipline of Programming.
The solution to the design problem that he proposes there does not look too attractive now, but his models, his metaphors, his insight into the design process - it's all still relevant and spot on.  I am surprised that the Agile movement does not quote "Notes" as one of their foundation texts.

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